A monthly series in which Tami embarks upon a year-long quest (inspired by the Julie/Julia Project) to use the Get It Scrapped! book and website to Get It Scrapped!)
the book:
Get It Scrapped!: Organize, Visualize, Create. First edition, 2008. Written by Debbie Hodge. The book that began it all for a fun online community.
You can buy the book at Amazon.com, The F+W Media Book Store, and many local Joann’s and AC Moore stores (don’t forget your 40% off coupons for those local stores!).
the contender:
You. Can you take the challenge to Organize? To Visualize? To Create? Can you be dared to review scrapping as you know it? Dare to tweak your system so you can more easily Get It Scrapped!
the schedule:
All of 2010. Each month you take on a new challenge to Get It Scrapped! that comes out of Debbie’s book and articles here. The process will be broken down and easy to achieve. (Ok maybe you won’t get your photos organized in a single month but you’ll at least you’ll make a dent in them!)
January 15th: Organize Photos
February 15th: Organize Your Story
March 15th: Organize Albums
April 15th: Visualize a Plan of Action
May 15th: Get Events Scrapped
June 15th: Get Everyday Scrapped
July 15th: Get Collections Scrapped
August 15th: Finding Inspiration
September 15th: Get Moments Scrapped
October 15th: Get Yourself Scrapped
November 15th: Get Your World Scrapped
December 15th: Prioritize Scrapbooking
Month #1 of The Get It Scrapped! Project: Get Organized
Yes I realize it’s a nasty eight letter word but it’s an important one. When you are organized you are cutting out a lot of the time that gets squandered looking for photos, supplies, or ideas. For some time I considered myself organized, then I got lazy about it. Now, I am unorganized. I spend more time looking for things, or trying to think of what to work on than I actually spend scrapbooking. How much do I actually get done? Next to nothing is the answer. Since the very definition of a scrapbooker is one who creates scrapbooks, I am sure the scrap-police are en route to arrest me for catachresis. (Don’t leave to look it up, it’s just a fancy way of saying ‘the misuse of a word’.)
Since the number one reason you are scrapbooking is to share photos and stories, we’ll put our focus there. Wait! Keep reading, don’t get intimidated. I promise it won’t be as bad as it sounds. We will break it down into achievable goals. This month we are going to work on organizing our photos. We may not get every photo filed and organized. We are scrapbookers after all; some of us may be looking at filing and organizing thousands of photos. It’s best to approach this challenge without the stress by setting simple, clear defined goals.
Step 1. Gather all photos into one spot.
- Printed photos – collect them all to one area, preferably where you can have some room to spread out.
- Digital photos – know where they are on your computer, know where your back-up copies are. (If you don’t have back-ups, please make them first. I am speaking from experience. I lost over 200 pictures of Christmas 2009 due to a computer hardware malfunction.)
Step 2. Decide upon a system for organizing your photos.
- If you currently have a system in place, take a moment to think about whether it works for you. If it does: fantastic–you’re done! If it doesn’t work, think about why it doesn’t and how that can be improved.
- If you do not have a system, let’s get one. Chapter 1 in Debbie’s book is a fantastic point of reference for organizing photos. Don’t have the book yet? Debbie’s written about this in Getting Organized to Make Scrapbook Pages.
Step 3. Set a goal to spend ____ hours this month getting your photos organized.
Those three steps will get us ahead of the game. Imagine that shortly you will find yourself with 20 minutes to scrapbook. Now imagine spending the whole 20 minutes scrapbooking, no more wasted time spent looking for photos.
I hope you’ll join me in the Challenge Forums. We can share before-and-after shots, encourage each other, and help each other with our systems. I’d also like to invite you to a chat on Tuesday, January 19th at 9:00pm EST (CHANGE IN DATE TO: Weds, Jan 20th at 9pm EST). Come on in and we’ll talk about where we are with our organizing, have some laughs, and maybe win a scrapbook kit!
What are you waiting for? Go gather those photos; have fun doing it. Who knows? You may find a photo you’d forgotten about.
[ttaylor]
